So Television is one of Little Dot’s earliest and longest-running clients. Starting with YouTube in 2014, the project has since grown across every social media platform, amassing billions of views, millions of subscribers/followers, and millions in revenue. GNS is one of the best Entertainment client examples of a full spectrum social platform partnership.
WHY: THE CLIENT BRIEF
Many brands have been established for 50 years or longer in which time the media landscape has massively changed, especially when it comes to social, with TikTok proving the latest challenge to navigate. However, legacy brands are making a mark on social and engaging new audiences across platforms. The question is though, how are they doing it? Being relevant whilst also ensuring your heritage and legacy are communicated correctly can prove tricky. The Graham Norton Show is a hero example of getting this right. It's been running for over 15 years and was around before most social platforms were created.WHAT: IDEA & DELIVERABLES
Since launching the YouTube channel, we’ve always found unique ways of repurposing GNS’s expansive archive, including seasonal considerations, but more importantly celebrity tentpole events like awards season, film and tv releases, and anniversaries. This approach has kept the socials on top when outside of linear broadcast. While in broadcast of a new series, we also use the archive to build momentum for the week’s episode - for example, if a guest has been on the show before, we’ll put out a mid-week clip of them from the previous episode and ensure the metadata reminds them of the upcoming episode on Friday.
Our front foot forward approach to platform expansion has meant GNS has been a pioneer on vertical platforms, and both the TikTok and Instagram reached 1M followers in Jan 2022. We also trialled a YouTube Shorts-exclusive GNS channel as an experiment, but ultimately found Shorts worked best as part of the main channel’s output.
Some Key Shorts Highlights To date (April 2022); ‘Zendaya Denies The Rumours’ Short has 19.7M Views (p. Feb 2022) which can be viewed here, ‘Andrew Garfield Understood The Assignment’ (p. Jan 2022) 4.4M Views which can be viewed here and ‘Emily Blunt’s Impression is *Chef’s Kiss*’ (p. March 2022) 3.8M Views which can be viewed here.
HOW: OUR STRATEGY / APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM
By fully embracing the unique opportunities that social videos present and leaning into creating fun and engaging content. In working with So Television across multiple platforms since 2014, we’ve brought the chat show to new audiences online developing a better understanding of how to build a holistic digital strategy and more importantly, an engaged superfan community.
It’s well known that younger audiences are consuming content on non-traditional platforms, therefore it has never been more important for brands to be fully engaged and active on social.
Whilst converting a legacy brand to the fast-paced, often reactionary, landscape of social media might be intimidating, it's possible to achieve this without losing any of the brand identity. And if done correctly, you can develop a whole new community and language around the brand.
OUTCOME: WHAT WERE THE RESULTS
YouTube (Launched March 2014)
2.9B views, 157.9M hours watched, 4.7M subscribers and counting
Facebook (Launched April 2019)
8.6B minutes viewed, 5.4B 3-second views, 73.2M engagements, 6.6M followers and counting
Instagram (Launched September 2019)
105.9M video views, 6.98M interactions, 1M followers and counting
TikTok (Launched March 2021)
32.3M page likes, 1.2M followers and counting
The benefit of social media not only allows you to build your brand where the younger audiences are but there is also a huge amount of creative freedom in doing so. These platforms are a fast-moving space and the best practices above will naturally evolve, as evident with the current pivot to vertical short form in the growth of TikTok, YouTube Shorts and Facebook Reels. That said, this shouldn't be a deterrent as with each innovation and change on the platform, creates a new opportunity for a brand to engage with new audiences and reach superfans.
Content for this case study was taken from an original article that can be found here, on the NewDigitalAge website.
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